Where do you worship God? I’m not asking for a geographical location—latitude and longitude.

I’m asking for a place in your life where you worship God.

For Noah, this place in his life came when he, his family, and his animals came out of the ark—when he thanked God for saving him. (Genesis 8:1-22).

Noah consumed much of his time and wealth building the ark. Then he spent a year cooped up with his family while working from home by taking care of a bunch of animals.

In our lives, this place to worship God for saving us is still to come.

The Pandemic is still here. It is still consuming the things in our lives and in our civilization that we spent so much time and wealth building.

We are still finding out if we foolishly built leaky “arks” that will sink—if we foolishly built “houses” that will collapse and crush us because we built on “sand”. (Matthew 7:26-27).

We are still finding out if we wisely built seaworthy “arks” that will save us—if we wisely built “houses” that will stand no matter what happens because we built on “rock”. (Matthew 7:24-25).

The Pandemic still rages like flood waters when “all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of heaven [are] opened.” (Genesis 7:11)—when waters are rising so high “that all the high mountains under the entire heavens [are] covered.” (Genesis 7:8).

In this Pandemic, the waters are still rising. The raging waters are still lifting us to scary heights.

The familiar things we relied upon in our lives—the “mountains” in our lives—are still disappearing beneath the waves. Chaotic seas are still destroying the lives and the civilization that we knew.

The Pandemic has taught us greater respect for Noah. We are complaining after only a few months cooped up with our families and our pets while working from home. After all, Noah couldn’t even leave the ark to shop for groceries!

All that was behind Noah now. And so, he reached a place in his life when he worshipped God for saving him.

In response, God’s amazing grace promised Noah future blessings. How?

God sent a rainbow! A better life and a better civilization were coming.

During this Pandemic, each of us is experiencing “floods” in different ways. Each of us is seeing “mountains” in our lives swept away in different ways. Each of us is experiencing fear and depression in different ways.

But the end result is the same for each of us. We are afraid and depressed at being cooped up while our lives and our civilization are being destroyed—swept away by waves of change.

Each of us will reach a different place in our lives before we worship God for saving us.

Each of us will reach a different place in our lives before we see the rainbow of hope that God gives us.

Each of us will reach a different place in our lives before we see the better life and the better civilization that God’s amazing grace is giving us!

A better life that we will enjoy to the full. (John 10:10).

And a civilization that will be good—that will be very good! (Isaiah 55:1-13).

READ MORE

To read more of my thoughts about Noah, his ark, and God’s rainbow, please read the section “Prologue: Creating, Destroying and Saving Civilization” and the Appendix “Noah’s World, Noah’s Ark, and God’s Rainbow” in my book The Promised Land, at pages 17-18, 195-201.

To read more of my thoughts about building “houses” on “sand” or “rock”, please read my blogs “Building Houses on Sand: Specks and Planks”, “Building Houses on Rock: Mission Impossible?”, “Building Houses on Rock: Mercy and Forgiveness”, and “Building Houses on Rock: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”.

To read how to build a civilization that is good, please read my blog “How Do We Build a Civilization That Is Good—That Is Very Good?”.